In accordance with a common construction of the prior art, a box car end 10 is provided with an offset portion 12 and a corrugated portion 14, usually of steel construction. The box car end 10 is welded to a flat metal end liner 20 leaving a space 22 between liner 20 and offset portion 12. The assembly of liner 20 and end 10 is then suspended by means of appropriate overhead crane means (not shown) and is brought above the floor portion of the box car indicated generally at 30. Already in place and comprising the lower or floor portion of the car is an end sill 32 comprising a generally horizontal portion 34 and a generally vertically extending portion 36. Welded or otherwise appropriately affixed to end sill 32 is a floor panel support member 40. Panel support member 40 comprises a lower generally vertically extending portion 42 and a generally horizontally extending portion 44 which is welded to end liner 20 at 43 and supports on its upper surface a floor panel member 48. Floor panel member 48 extends along horizontal portion 44 of floor panel support 40 but terminates at a point 50 wherein it is welded or otherwise affixed to horizontal portion 44 leaving a space or gap 52.
However, prior to welding the panel support to the end sill and the panel to the panel support, in order to obtain engagement of the end and end liner assembly with the end sill 32 it is necessary to lower the end and end liner assembly and in such a way as to have the vertical portion 36 of the end sill enter into the opening 22 defined by offset 12 and flat end liner 20. This is a difficult operation. It is often time consuming and occasionally dangerous.
In order to provide an unobstructed end area 51, countersunk fasteners, for example, huck bolts 58 are usually utilized to hold the liner and end in engagement with the vertical extension of the end sill. The countersinking of the end liner and extension 36 indicated respectively at 54 and 56 and the drilling of holes 57 in offset portion 12 is done prior to lowering the end and end liner over the end sill extension. However, it often occurs that there is misalignment between the countersunk holes 54 in the end sill as compared with holes 56 in the end liner and/or holes 57. As a result it is often necessary to recountersink in order to put the fasteners in place. This is a time consuming operation and when a whole assembly line may be held up with such operations, the expense is greatly multiplied.
In another construction shown in FIG. 3 a fastener 59 is utilized to hold the end 10 and liner 20 in engagement with the end sill 32 and vertical extension 36. The fastener is not countersunk and the head 59a extends into the car so that when the horizontal portion 44 of the floor panel support is welded to the liner 20 an inwardly inclined extension 44a is provided which provides an obstruction in the car which can damage lading and/or make it difficult to pack in the end area 51 of the car.
Another prior art construction utilizes a corrugated end liner in which mechanical fasteners are placed between or below the corrugations which hold the end sill vertical extension in engagement with the offset portion of the end. A panel support is welded to the horizontal portion of the end sill and to the lower portion of the corrugations and/or the vertical extension of the end sill. However, in this construction the end of the car is obstructed to the extent of the corrugations. Also, the corrugations may damage some ladings. Furthermore, a corrugated end is weaker than a flat steel end, particularly with regard to bending applied longitudinally to the end of the car.
Still another prior art construction is shown in FIG. 4 wherein the end 10 and the flat end liner 20 are integral throughout the lateral extent of the car. The end has no offset 12 and a weld, for example, as shown at 11 holds the members together. This construction does avoid the obstructions in the end area such as 44a in FIG. 3 and the countersunk construction in FIG. 2. However, many customers are opposed to an integral end and end sill because if the end of the car is damaged the entire car end structure must be disassembled, for example, by torch burning, resulting in considerable expense and downtime to repair the car. For this reason the integral end and end sill construction is not desired by many customers.
It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide a box car end construction which leaves the end portion of the car unobstructed.
It is another object of the present invention to avoid the step of lowering the end liner and offset of the end into alignment with a vertical extension of the end sill.
It is another object of the present invention to avoid the problem of misaligned drilled and/or countersunk holes in the end structure of the car after the vertical extension has been placed within the opening defined by the liner and offset end portion.
Another object of the present invention is to avoid an integral end and end sill construction.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fabrication technique which is less expensive than prior techniques.
Other objects will be apparent from the drawings and the following description.